1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to connectors for connecting electrical signal lines including a power source line or an earth line and, particularly, to a small size male multi-contact connector and a small size female multi-contact connector (hereinafter small-sized multi-terminal type male and female connectors).
2. Description of the Related Art
A circular connector and a box-shaped connector of a rectangular shape have been popularly used in the prior art. The circular connector has, in a central area of a circular shell, a plurality of projected connector pins, a periphery of which is covered with resin or metal. There is a type of circular connector, wherein a lock member of a complicated structure is arranged around each of female and male connectors for locking the same when both the female and male connectors are coupled with each other.
On the other hand, various products of the box-shaped connector have been marketed, which are useful for being mounted onto a circuit board. For example, the box-shaped connectors are widely used as a connector for coupling a peripheral equipment, such as a hard disk drive, a cartridge magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive or a printer, to a personal computer via a cable. The box-shaped connector usually has about 50 pins. Some of such connectors have no locking means but others include a high density type shield connector wherein female and male connectors are coupled with each other by screws and a ribbon type shield connector having a ribbon-like locking mechanism.
However, since the individual terminals in the circular connector are covered with resin or encircled with a metallic shell, a size of the connector becomes comparatively larger relative to the number of terminals. Also, the connector of a type wherein the female and male connectors are locked together necessarily has a complicated structure including a hook member and a catcher member arranged around the respective connectors.
However, the box-shaped connector has a considerably large size because it is laterally elongated and has a number of pins. Especially, one having a locking mechanism is complicated in structure resulting in the rise of manufacturing cost, and necessarily becomes much larger because of the addition of the locking mechanism. Accordingly, the box-shaped connector is suitable when there is a sufficient space for accommodating the same, but is unsuitable when the connector is used in a limited space, such as when the connector is coupled through a hole having a predetermined size.
For example, if one wishes to connect an outdoor video camera for a door phone, which has recently become popular, with an indoor monitor, it is difficult to do so by using the box-shaped connector, because the size of the connector is too large to install the video camera while using a conventional type peep hole in the door. Thus, it is necessary to enlarge the peep hole in the door when the box-shaped connector is used. Since the conventional circular connector becomes also larger as the number of pins increases, there is the same problem as that of the box-shaped connector.